漢字Kanji · in Structures & Home
重: heavy, important
Also: esteem, respect, heap up, pile up, nest of boxes, -fold
里 carries the meaning · 千 is drawn in
Oracle bone · Shang Bronze · Zhou Today
Oracle bone and bronze: Wikimedia Commons, public domain. Today’s form: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Seven readings, and the words that use each
ジュウjuu · on'yomi · in compounds
- 体重たいじゅうbody weight
- 厳重なげんじゅうなstrict
- 重要なじゅうようなimportant
- 重視するじゅうしするgive serious consideration
チョウchou · on'yomi
- 尊重するそんちょうするrespect
- 慎重なしんちょうなprudent
- 貴重なきちょうなprecious
えe · kun'yomi · on its own
- 二重ふたえtwo layers
おもいomoi · kun'yomi
- 重いおもいheavy
かさねるkasaneru · kun'yomi
- 重ねるかさねるpile up [v.t.]
かさなるkasanaru · kun'yomi
- 重なるかさなるbe piled up [v.i.]
おもomo · kun'yomi
- 重さおもさweight
Also read おもり, おもなう, with no example words in our sources. Words: Kanji alive, CC BY 4.0.
Where it comes from
Origin · sourced
Phono-semantic compound (形聲)人 man (meaning) + 東 bag (sound)
A man carrying a bag. A glyph 土 (“earth”) was later added to show that the bag-carrying man is standing on the ground.
Source: Wiktionary, 重 (rev. 93318762), CC BY-SA 4.0
Memory story · made up to help you remember
“Village/distance (里) + person/pole variant. Originally depicted a person carrying a heavy load over a long "distance"—the essence of something being "heavy" or "layered."”
Connections
重 gives its sound to
The family reading is ドウ (dou). Sound parts: KanjiVG.
Also read ジュウ
11 kanji share this on'yomiIn ChineseSame character in simplified and traditional · zhòng
Same form: 重 is written the same way in mainland China (simplified) and in Taiwan and Hong Kong (traditional).
- Simplified
- 重 mainland China, Singapore
- Traditional
- 重 Taiwan, Hong Kong
Pinyin zhòng most common reading
Forms and pinyin: Unicode Unihan database (Unicode License v3). Pinyin lists the most common reading, not every reading.